October 27 Email!

My People,

Thank you for all of the pictures this week. 

Elder Hamula:

A member from the Seventy came to visit our mission for a few days this week. It is so awesome!

His name is Elder Hamula. In preparation for his visit, he did a mission-wide fast the Sunday before to better prepared to learn from him and the Spirit when he spoke to us. We met with him in a very large meeting on Thursday. There, he spoke a lot about Revelation and the steps, and procedures to better recognize and follow revelation. To me, it all boiled down to 2 things: Learn to call & learn to listen.

We must learn how to properly call on the Lord and, just as important, we must learn how to listen to him when he speak back.

A few days later, he met with only the Zone Leaders in the mission, so a much smaller group. That was also incredible! He talked a lot about being an example to everyone. Referring to how people who watch you will act to what you do, he said, "As you are, so are they"

That applies to all of us. Grandparents, siblings, coworkers, friends, neighbors and so on.

It was so awesome to spend time with Elder Hamula and to learn from him. Also, just so you can picture him, he spoke in this last General Conference at the Sunday morning session, he spoke on the sacrament/atonement.

Conversion:

We have an investigator and her less-active husband who we have been meeting with for a while. They are both coming to Church most Sundays, and reading and doing most everything they should be doing. We decided to have a lesson with them this week about 'conversion'. We went through the story of Alma 23-24 and discussed what "weapons of war" they might have.

They were both sharing personal experiences and it was a spiritual lesson. At the end of the lesson, Lisa Segel looked at us right when the lesson was over and had tears in her eyes. She said, "When I woke up this morning, I just knew that I needed to hear something today, something that could really help me. This has helped me so much. Thank you"

That was an awesome lesson. I love teaching lessons when the Spirit is so strong and people always want to become better afterwards. That's what it is all about.

Bitter-Sweet:

Transfer calls came last night. Elder Shorts has been a Zone Leader in this Zone for a transfer longer than me, so we were both confident that he was going to be the one to leave. Strangely, however, he is staying and I am getting transferred. I am pretty sure I know where I am going haha it's not that hard to find out, but I will let you all know my new address next Monday

***DO NOT SEND ANYTHING TO THIS ADDRESS***

**WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEK**

I'm excited for my next area, and to have my new companion. It will be so fun! I am also pretty sad to be leaving Bulverde after only 2 transfers. I really did love it here. The people are fantastic, and the ward is amazing. We didn't have any baptisms in the last 2 transfers, but we now have a handful of people who will be baptized in the next few weeks! Which is so exciting! But also sad that I won't be able to be a part of them :(

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I could go on and on, but I must close this E-mail so I can go play basketball.

I love ya'll!!

-Elder Giles